German Orbital Systems at 4S symposium 2018

Last week German Orbital Systems participated in the traditional 4S (Small Satellites Systems and Services) Symposium which took place at Sorrento, Italy this year. With the topic “Small satellites beyond boundaries” participants were involved in discussions about small satellites utilisation for missions, which were using larger spacecraft before. The programme included technical sessions dedicated to mission and system analysis; small satellite applications such as Earth Observation, science, telecommunication and navigation; new Technologies at system, sub-system and component level.

Our representatives actively participated in the exhibition and panel discussions. German Orbital Systems has shared a booth with partner organisation ECM launch services. On Tuesday evening, during the poster session, we presented SCRUM methodology application for the D-Star ONE satellite development.

4S symposium 2018

Friday afternoon, our system engineer Daria Stepanova gave a speech on the topic “Future Development of the Commercial CubeSat Industry”. The presentation has covered the following trends: form factor, application, stream and technology from the commercial CubeSats perspective. Our analysis showed the following trends:

the general size of the CubeSats is getting bigger;

CubeSat industry statistics are influenced by owners of large constellations, distorting the general picture;

there is significant room for new companies to join in application sectors such as Information and Communications;

CubeSats will allow making first steps for the new markets as it is a relatively fast and cheap way to demonstrate the technology and test payloads.

After the presentation, Daria has joined the panel discussion together with Roger Walker, ESA’s Project Manager for YES2, Mr. Georges Brondino, CNES engineer, Mr. Roger Hunter, the project manager for NASA’s Kepler Mission. The panel was moderated by Mr. Stanley Kennedy Jr, President & Chief Systems Engineer of Oakman Aerospace. Panel’s topic “Preparing for Deep Space Missions: How do CubeSats boldly go?” united representatives of space agencies, commercial industry and law specialists in order to uncover possibilities and barriers for future CubeSat missions beyond the Low Earth Orbit. During the panel, following topics were discussed: launch issues for deep space and interplanetary CubeSat missions, CubeSat mission assurance and reliability drivers, technological barriers that CubeSats are currently facing and the engagement of scientific community into new missions and instrumentation proposition.

The 4S Symposium is a great platform for scientific exchange, commercial opportunities and partnership establishment. During the exhibition several agreements on the future mission’s development were discussed, many new contacts were established. For the German Orbital Systems, this event was a great opportunity to show results of our work and vision of the future of the industry.